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How exactly could a ban be carried out if none of the functionaries were aware the book was supposed to be banned? I would presume there would have to be a list of materials and probably a reason for their being banned for a bureaucracy to manage this kind of censorship.

> Yeah but what's the likelihood that an order like that by Stalin would be documented so explicitly if at all?

That's what makes it look suspicious when stated as fact. I could imagine it being in someone's memoir, though, but the anecdote wasn't attributed to a person.

>what's the likelihood that an order like that by Stalin would be documented so explicitly if at all?

Some of his/his associates documents have been published post fall of the USSR, so non-zero but low. That's why the claim seemed extraordinary.